Apple Attorneys Requested Investigation of Possible iPhone Theft

Disclosure: Up until a few months ago, I was employed by Gizmodo, but was not involved in any way with the iPhone leak. As part of an ongoing partnership, Fast Company sometimes syndicates Gizmodo stories and vice versa.

First things first: for a primer on this whole situation, read our Start to Finish Timeline (which I will be updating further in just a minute!). It'll get you right up to date, from the moment Gray Powell left his iPhone on a barstool to the police seizure of equipment at a Gizmodo editor's house.

Following the revelation that Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's house had been broken into by the police, lots of new and curious information came to light—not unexpected, since the interested parties in this case are our colleagues in the tech journalism field, a scrappy and able bunch. They found out that REACT, the specific interdepartmental team that actually seized Chen's equipment, has a steering committee on which many prominent Silicon Valley companies sit—including Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, and, most importantly, Apple.

Many have questioned whether Apple put pressure on REACT or on the San Mateo District Attorney's office to investigate the alleged theft of the iPhone prototype. It was just talk, so far—while REACT has investigated based on queries from Microsoft and Adobe, Microsoft and Adobe also make probably the two most pirated pieces of software in the history of pirated software (Windows and Photoshop, respectively). Just because a company sits on the steering committee doesn't mean they're not also the victim of a crime, is what I'm saying.

On the other hand, we now have a statement that Apple did request the investigation that led to the seizure of four computers (and a broken front door) belonging to Jason Chen. From the San Jose Business Journal:

Wagstaffe [the San Mateo County DA] said that an outside counsel for Apple, along with Apple
engineer Powell, called the District Attorney’s office on Wednesday or
Thursday of last week to report a theft had occurred and they wanted it
investigated. The District Attorney’s office then referred them to the
Rapid Enforcement and Allied Computer Team, or REACT, a
multi-jurisdictional, high-tech crime task force that operates under the
Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office.

That's confirmation from the source that Apple requested an investigation. It's odd that REACT was then called in afterwards, instead of Apple putting pressure on them first, but legally it's more sensible to go through the District Attorney. This doesn't indicate that the investigation was biased or otherwise compromised, but until now, we had no idea if Apple was involved at all.

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I remember when reporters REPORTED the news HONESTLY. Wait, its not the chinese stereoptype undermining our U.S. technology...its the geeky white hack that gets in over his head...no, wait, its the absent minded professor guy who has so much on his plate he forgets to put the prototype in his pocket....no, wait, its the russian spy who ...WAIT, HOLD IT, WTF?....its the consumer who buys into all this crap forced down their throats by quasi-journalistic lemmings who are being spoon fed by the benefactors that keep their ratings from plunging...to their death...and in return get huge free press for nada. Remember when reporters were ORIGINAL?

Sure, take the material out from between the two bookends, and I can see how this could seem biased, Aiden. But why would you do that? Context is everything. And I'd direct to the paragraph before the last line, which sets it up to be way more balanced than you're suggesting.

...That's confirmation from the source that Apple requested an investigation. It's odd that REACT was then called in afterwards, instead of Apple putting pressure on them first, but legally it's more sensible to go through the District Attorney. This doesn't indicate that the investigation was biased or otherwise compromised, but until now, we had no idea if Apple was involved at all....

The story is being horribly misrepresented. Bookending the actual facts with "Many have questioned whether Apple put pressure on REACT or on the San Mateo District Attorney's office..." and, "Now we know--they started the whole thing." goes beyond disingenuous—it's downright misleading.

The facts are that apple "requested an investigation." This is precisely, identically comparable to a situation in which someone commits a hit-and-run on you in traffic, and you catch their license number.

To "request an investigation," or the confirmation of such, in no way implies that "pressure" was being applied, nor does their starting "the whole thing" mean any more than when an individual starts "the whole thing" when they report their personal off-the-shelf cell phone stolen.

I have a lot of respect for FC, but allowing this type of dreck to seep out under your masthead is deplorable.